Mamata agrees to fence 300 acres of Indo-Bangladesh border

New Delhi Correspondent
West Bengal government headed by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has agreed to the federal Indian government’s request for acquiring 300 acres of land in the state for putting up barbed wire fencing along the border with Bangladesh, Indian Home Ministry officials said.
The West Bengal government’s readiness to acquire the land has been conveyed to the federal Home Ministry recently after a hiatus of two years, they said.
India shares a 4.096km border with Bangladesh out of which West Bengal shares 2,216 with that country.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh expressed satisfaction on Friday at the progress of work of barbed wire fencing and construction of integrated check posts along the borders with Bangladesh, Nepal and Myanmar and directed the officials to complete the pending works at an early date, a Home Ministry statement said on Friday night.
Singh also directed the officials to take up construction of additional 13 integrated check posts including those at the border with Bangladesh at Hili, Ghojadanga, Mahadipur, Changrabandha, Fulbari, Sutarkandi and passenger terminal at Petrapole.
Under the border management division of the Home Ministry, floating border outposts will be built in West Bengal, Meghalaya and Tripura states of India sharing borders with Bangladesh.
Projects under the Border Area Development Programme (BADP) to improve road and mobile connectivity in the border villages as well as imparting skills to the people living there have also made good progress.
At Friday’s meeting of Home Ministry officials, Rajnath Singh reviewed the progress of ongoing projects being executed by the Land Ports Authority of India and the Border Management Division under the Ministry of Home and it was noted that there was very good progress and Integrated Check Posts (ICPs) at five border crossing points out of seven approved projects have been completed.
Terminals for smooth movement of goods and people at integrated check posts Petrapole and Agartala on India-Bangladesh border have been made functional. At each ICP, facilities have been constructed for customs clearance, immigration, warehouses, approach roads and terminal buildings to adequately handle import and export of goods and entry and exit of people.
Work on integrated check post at Dawki on India-Bangladesh border is in advanced stage of completion, the statement said.